Now that a bona fide Indian has got another world crown, it has to guard against impostors. For instance, a British couple who run a mail order chilli business, spent four years developing the ‘Dorset Naga’ from seeds that they had picked up by chance from a shop in Bournemouth. As it was a hot seller (they sold 250,000 seeds in 2005), they sent it for testing to two labs in the US where the ‘Dorset Naga’ hit nearly 900,000 and 923,000 SHUs respectively.

The couple have now sought Plant variety protection so that no one else can sell the seeds. With several more contenders elsewhere, the chilli world is all heated up but the cognoscenti say that despite similar-sounding names, the Indian one is the original hottie and should get the recognition. Will this be India’s next candidate for GI certification after Darjeeling tea?

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